Implementing the Biological Weapons Convention

The 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) opened for signature on 10 April 1972 and entered into force on 26 March 1975.

The BWC has 173 States Parties and 9 signatory States (as at 2 March 2015). The Convention depositaries are the governments of the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Under Article I of the Convention, biological weapons are defined on the basis of purpose (the 'general purpose criterion') as follows:

microbial or other biological agents, or toxins whatever their origin or method of production, of types and in quantities that have no justification for prophylactic, protective or other peaceful purposes; and

weapons, equipment or means of delivery designed to use such agents or toxins for hostile purposes or in armed conflict.

Once your State has ratified or acceded to the Convention, it will be bound by the content of the BWC, and obliged to implement its requirements. In particular, Article IV obliges each State Party, in accordance with its constitutional processes, to take any necessary measures to prohibit and prevent the development, production, stockpiling, acquisition or retention of biological weapons in its territory and anywhere under its jurisdiction or control. States Parties have agreed that the prohibition of the use of biological weapons - originating in the 1925 Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare - also falls under the scope of the BWC.

In addition, Article III requires all States Parties to refrain from transferring biological weapons to anyone and from assisting, encouraging or inducing anyone to manufacture or acquire them.